KARNATAKA POLICE DGP H N Sathyanarayana Rao, who was forced to go on leave 15 days ago after a junior colleague, DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, accused him of providing favours in Bengaluru jail to AIADMK leader V K Sasikala and fake stamp paper case accused Abdul Karim Telgi, was briefly reinstated as DGP of Fire Services on Monday, his last working day, before he retired in the evening.

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This was made to ensure that the IPS officer, who had otherwise served honorably for 32 years, would receive a proper exit from the police department. In a letter to the DGP on July 12, DIG Roopa had alleged irregularities in the jail. She stated that she had heard rumours that Sasikala, who is in jail in a disproportionate assets case, had paid Rs 2 crore in bribe to jail officials to ensure preferential treatment, among other allegations. The issue resulted in a public spat and the eventual transfer of both officers pending a probe by a former Home Secretary.

Rao had subsequently issued a Rs 50-lakh criminal defamation notice on DIG Roopa. The Karnataka government Monday also appointed senior IPS officer T Suneel Kumar as the new police commissioner for Bengaluru city. The incumbent city police chief, Praveen Sood, took charge on January 1. “My tenure as police commissioner has probably been the shortest until now. I did not seek a reason when I was posted here, and I don’t want to know why I am being changed,” Sood said before handing over charge to Suneel Kumar.

The government Monday also brought back its former intelligence chief, A M Prasad. Prasad, placed as DGP (intelligence), had been shunted to the logistics and modernisation unit last year after an officer who committed suicide claimed that he had been harassed by the senior officer many years ago.